A quarter of a million dollars is the going tab for four years at most top-tier universities. Why does it cost so much and is it worth it? Andrew Hacker, a professor emeritus in the department of political science at Queens College, New York, and Claudia Dreifus, a New York Times writer, make an incisive case that the American way of higher education, now a $420 billion per-year business, has lost sight of its primary mission — producing educated, knowledgeable citizens who can play a role advancing our national life and strengthening our democracy.

Fields, editor-in-chief of Neuro Glia Biology, has written a book about a revolutionary discovery that is overturning a century of conventional thinking about how the brain operates at a cellular level.

The 24/7 Baby Doctor is a 21st century reference guide for new parents, and coaches readers in an encouraging, you-can-do-this voice telling parents what they can do and when they need to consult their doctor. Topics include: sleep, food, crying, stooling, spitting up, development, health and safety, and technology. Offered are evidence-based solutions that reflect American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations and the latest research — whether on vaccines, autism, or cognitive products that supposedly make babies smarter.

Epstein, a physician, medical writer, and adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, wrote Get Me Out because she has always been intrigued by the gray zone of medicine — where doctors and patients make decisions not so much on scientific findings but on "what seems to make sense." Epstein was lured to the history of childbirth because the patient is healthy, which makes for an even more tense — or dynamic — relationship between doctor and patient compared to other fields.